US researchers have proposed the usage of photo voltaic inverters in utility-scale photo voltaic belongings to switch costly voltage compensators, to supply voltage help at night time. They mentioned that reactive energy from PV inverters can be cheaper and prompt introducing incentives to persuade PV plant house owners.
Scientists from Carnegie Mellon College in america have proposed the usage of PV inverters as a substitute of pricey voltage compensators to supply voltage help at night time. They are saying it is going to scale back prices for grid operators and take away a barrier to integrating renewable vitality into loosely linked energy networks.
Using PV inverters as a substitute of compensators can present an extra supply of earnings for PV plant house owners, though the voltage help provide from a utility-scale PV plant requires plus an augmented voltage controller to the ability, which additionally must be changed throughout the lifetime of an asset.
“There’s a good case to be made that PV plant operators needs to be compensated for offering voltage help at night time,” mentioned researcher Jay Apt. pv journal. “With out extra compensation, it isn’t an excellent enterprise resolution for PV plant operators to tackle extra prices.”
He mentioned that native ancillary providers for reactive energy may very well be created, with mills bidding on reactive energy capabilities on an hourly foundation – like regulated ancillary providers. An ancillary service would thus create an environment friendly marketplace for reactive energy costs and supply the income wanted for PV plant operators to get better their prices.
“With enough incentives, PV plant operators can enhance the income stream by offering reactive energy help at night time,” mentioned researcher Yamit Lavi. “PV plant operators already settle for roughly one 12 months lifetime discount of their inverters for the present necessary reactive energy necessities. Offering reactive energy at night time will scale back the their life by only one extra 12 months and add advantages to the grid, doubtlessly rising PV adoption.
Voltage compensators are generally often known as static synchronous compensators (STATCOMs) or versatile alternating present transmission programs (FACTS). It prices between $30 million and $100 million, relying on dimension and placement. PV inverters are additionally costly belongings, however they continue to be unused for about 50% of their lives and the standard voltage help offered by the units throughout the day just isn’t accessible at night time.
“PV that gives reactive energy at night time has been efficiently examined within the discipline of East Sussex UK by Nationwide Grid and Lightsource BP argued that the usage of a gaggle of PV inverters for voltage help is about 50 occasions inexpensive than putting in a FACTS system,” the researchers defined. , famous that their work entails calculating the price of reactive energy from a photo voltaic PV energy plant. “We made the primary comparability of the entire price of utilizing a PV inverter as a alternative for a STATCOM with a STATCOM, together with the breakdown of the inverter and the mandatory tools.”
The teachers used a mannequin developed by the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to find out whether or not PV inverters may forestall voltage journeys at night time. In addition they evaluate prices primarily based on a reduced money circulation mannequin.
They discovered that PV inverters have a median price of $20.20 per kilovolt-amperes reactive (kVAR), which they are saying is between $56/kVAR and $269/kVAR lower than STATCOMs.
“This distinction has a wide range as a result of giant vary of STATCOM prices, which is as a result of STATCOM dimension, environmental situations of the placement, and the tools required for set up and interconnection,” they mentioned.
The researchers offered their findings in “Using PV inverters for night time voltage help can scale back grid prices,” which was not too long ago revealed in Vitality Stories.
“Our evaluation reveals that working PV inverters at night time is 4 to 14 occasions cheaper,” the scientists concluded. “The associated fee distinction is because of a shorter lifetime of the PV inverters in addition to a extra detailed discounted money circulation mannequin that accounts for controller replacements.”
This content material is protected by copyright and is probably not reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and need to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
